Half - Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India

by Vinay Sitapati

Bofors was only one of many mistakes that Rajiv will be remembered for. Worried that Muslims were disillusioned with the Congress and voting for regional alternatives, Rajiv Gandhi overturned a Supreme Court decision that had enhanced the protections available to divorced Muslim women. This pleased the Islamic clergy, but led to allegations by the rising BJP that he was pandering to Muslim extremists. So, Rajiv decided to win over the Hindu vote bank by completely opening up the disputed Babri mosque in Ayodhya for Hindu worship in 1986. This upset Muslims, so Rajiv’s government decided, in 1988, to ban Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses for hurting Islamic beliefs—the first country in the world to do so. Three years later, in an attempt to consolidate his Hindu vote bank, Rajiv allowed the foundation stone ceremony for a future Hindu temple at Ayodhya, enraging Muslims even more. Such competitive communalism reinforced the image of the Congress as playing religious politics rather than standing by its professed secular creed. There is no evidence that Narasimha Rao advised Rajiv Gandhi against these missteps.

RG pandering to please both Hindus and Muslims; Ayodhya foundation stone ceremony; Banning of Satanic verses; Reversal of Supreme Court verdict (Shah Bano case)